Kawahara

Kawahara is a small family-run minshuku in the hills of Yuyama, drawing its water from the village's hot-spring source: alkaline, faintly sulfurous, and silky on the skin, the kind that keeps you warm well after you step out. There are two baths, an extra-large wooden tub with a warm, woody feel and a spacious stone-built bath in the main building, and in practice they work out as one party at a time, which families with kids especially appreciate. Guests choose between the main building, with an old-fashioned minshuku feel, and a newer annex built more like a mountain lodge. From late autumn into winter, a wood-burning hearth burns in the main building, the inn's own signature, and the room stays warm while the fire crackles. Meals lean on local ingredients, deer and boar among them, plus rice and tea the family grows itself. It's a quiet, homely stay with warm, attentive hosts.